Chapter 13

I tried to get my mind off things from my former life that I wished I had by trying to think of things I could make now that would do the job. The main problem was that I didn't have any reasonable type of building material. None at all.

That made perfect sense since I was here way out ahead of welding shops and lumberyards to mention only a few things I was obviously here ahead of. There had to be something I could make, had to be. I was stumped for the moment though and Louise was giving me such a look. I realized that she wondered what I wanted her to do next.

That was another thing I worried about. Louise was here all the time now. That wasn't bothering me at all, but was it bothering her? She'd had to leave everyone she knew to come and live with a guy who couldn't even speak her lingo. As if that weren't bad enough, he'd been hunting with her twice and the first time he'd let her skin, clean, and cut up three deer and then they'd given it all away. Next on the agenda had come building something she couldn't imagine the use of and spending days doing it.

I hoped she felt better about the smokehouse by now, since she was seeing it in action, sorta. Hell, I hoped it actually worked like I expected it too. I wasn't that knowledgeable about smokehouses or exactly what they were doing. All I could do is hope that Louise would know if we were fucking something up in the drying the meat process.

A thought had just shot into my head about building materials, probably because I'd quit thinking about them and started in on worrying about Louise's mental well being. Adobe, more specifically adobe brick. Surely I could figure out how to make adobe brick, hell, they'd been around since before Christ, long before Christ for that matter.

Thoughts of a young brick plant came to a screeching halt when I heard one of the now familiar bird call signals. I looked at Louise and she was looking to me for permission to answer. I nodded my head and wondered why she didn't just go ahead and do it.

At any rate Sky, Rega, Junior, Helen, Nancy, and eight others came up. I could tell at once that they were headed for the Neches and probably had fishing on their minds, since two of the braves were carrying a dug out canoe. It was a pretty small one; it had to be for two men to be able to carry it.

Sky started talking to me and I looked at Louise to see if she understood what was going on. It was obvious that she did and also plain enough that she didn't have any idea how to tell me the details. While we were trying to sort this out Rega had noticed the smoking smokehouse, and then most of the others did too.

At least Louise knew how to deal with the babling that broke out after everyone had located the offending building. She walked over to the doubled blanket I'd hung as a sort of makeshift door, pulled it open, and then waited for the smoke to thin a little before entering and signaling for Rega to follow. It didn't take either one of them long to look at the smokehouse and they were back outside thirty seconds later, with their eyes watering fiercely and trying not to cough so much.

After they cleared their lungs Rega burst into her lingo, explaining to the others what the smokehouse was for. The excitement lasted probably fifteen or twenty minutes before the talk must have come back around to what they were up to today.

Louise finally made me understand that they were going fishing today and came by to see if we wanted to go too. Well, of course I did, to be neighborly if nothing else. I also wondered how they were going to do much fishing with such a tiny boat, but I held my tongue for now. Hell, they wouldn't understand anyway.

With everything closed up and thoughts of adobe brick on the back burner we headed for the Neches. It wasn't far and I'll bet the two toting the canoe were glad to be nearly there. I was a little surprised though when they set it down probably a hundred yards back from the water and all the men fanned out to examine the area, weapons at the ready.

Wondering all the while what they were worried about, I went along anyway and kept my eyes scanning the bank like they seemed to be doing. I didn't catch on until they spotted one. Alligators. I hadn't even considered the damned things at all, and it's a wonder one didn't chow down on my dumb ass while I was roaming around near the river that first day.

What I would have considered a pretty damned big 'gator slid off the bank on this side as we approached. When I glanced across the river and saw one nearly three times that large slipping into the water and heading in our direction I got a little weak in the knees for a second.

The big bastard heading our way looked like he must have been fifteen feet long. It was unsettling that it knew we were coming and seemed to be coming to meet us. That ain't natural to my way of thinking. Then again, what did he have to worry about as long as he stayed in the water?

Of course I knew what he had to worry about but he couldn't have a clue, yet. I kept my eyes open but continued toward the water. Sky and Louise started jabbering to me as I got closer to the bank, but all I did was take a careful look around.

Now that I knew what one looked like in the water, while it was up where it could look around anyway, I wasn't worried about it. There weren't any that stayed on the bank of this side as we approached, but I could see that there were four out in the water keeping an eye on us.

Shouldering the Marlin, I shot the biggest one first. I was surprised that the noise of the rifle and the thrashing of the big bastard didn't spook the others, but I shot each of them too. I hoped the fuckers would float when they died.

Meanwhile, back on the bank, Sky, Rega, Nancy, Helen, and Louise were all right beside me now even though they had their eyes locked on the roiling water. In less than ten seconds they all started jabbering at me. Finally, remembering that I couldn't tell him shit, Sky yelled to one of the other braves and he took off running, bow in hand, back toward their camp I guessed.

I was mostly watching the 'gators and wondering if I'd done the right thing by shooting at their heads. I realized that it might not have been the best place for a shot, but fuck, it was all I could locate with them in the water and mostly under it like that. I decided that I should try to find something to get them out with, just incase they actually died.

I handed Louise the Marlin and took off running for my pickup. When I got to it, climbed in, and fired it up there was a lot more excitement. Every one of them, except Louise, scattered. I didn't pay them any mind and drove back over within fifty feet of the bank.

After I'd killed the engine I went around back and opened the camper shell. It only took a few minutes to dig out one of my fishing rods, and not much longer to get into my tackle box. I replaced the Tiny Torpedo bait with the largest treble hook I had and went back to where Louise was standing, holding the Marlin, and no doubt mostly wondering what she was supposed to do with it.